The University of Pittsburgh today is expected to announce the largest donation by an individual in its history, a gift of $41.3 million from alumnus and Ansys founder John Swanson.

The university has called a 10 a.m. news conference and outdoor event at Benedum Hall, which houses the School of Engineering on the Oakland campus.

Mr. Swanson is an accomplished engineer and contributor to educational initiatives. According to the university's Web site, he received a doctoral degree in applied mechanics from Pitt's engineering school in 1966.

Earlier, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Cornell University.

Mr. Swanson, now semi-retired and living in The Villages, Fla., founded in 1970 what is now called Ansys Inc., a global engineering software firm with 1,400 employees in Southpointe, Washington County. It serves such industries as auto, aerospace, nuclear electronics and health care.

His name is familiar on campus and in particular in Pitt's engineering school, where the John A. Swanson Institute for Technical Excellence was founded in 2003. It has benefited from $5 million received from Mr. Swanson.

In May, Washington and Jefferson College announced that it would name its new science center in honor of Mr. Swanson, who provided a $10 million gift to the project.

The donation to be announced today comes with Pitt already past the halfway point in its $2 billion fund-raising campaign. Earlier this year, in discussing its 12-year facilities plan, Pitt said Benedum is slated for a $52 million renovation project.

The donation eclipses in size other major gifts, including $20 million from Henry Hillman, his family and his foundations to create The Hillman Fellows Program for Innovative Cancer Research, and a $10 million gift from John and Gertrude Petersen toward the Petersen Events Center.

Today's announcement follows several recent major gifts to area universities. In October, West Virginia University announced a $25 million gift from Ben Statler, a former executive with Consolidation Coal Co. and a university graduate. At Carnegie Mellon University, Wall Street investor David A. Tepper and his wife, Marlene, donated $55 million to the business school in 2004.